Joshy's birthday

Last year I compiled a "first decade" book for Joshy for his 30th birthday..recollections of the events and milestones of his first 10 years, accompanied by digitally scanned and (sometimes) manipulated photos that I thought captured those amazing years.

For his birthday this year I compiled a photo diary + transcripts of my journal for our trip to Canada and the US from December 1993 - January 1994. In early 1993 Joshy was selected to represent Australia in the Under 15 Ice Hockey team to compete in the Royal Canadian Legion 18th Annual International Ice Hockey Tournament in Red Deer, Alberta, commencing 27th December 1993. We saved hard so all three of us could go on the Ice Hockey Tour, then stay on for three more weeks so we could see a bit of the US (Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Washington).

We had a wonderful week on Vancouver Island and four days in Vancouver while the team prepared for the tournament before heading to Red Deer in Alberta.

Joshy was able to live out his dream of playing non stop hockey in a country as obsessed with the sport as he was at that time.


When he wasn't playing competitive hockey he loved playing "pick up" games with the local kids (and Dads) on the outdoor rinks on every street corner (almost) in Red Deer. These outdoor rinks were just sports ovals. Over winter the local fire brigades kept the ovals sprayed with water, which then froze, creating perfectly smooth and safe surfaces for skating.

We saw a lot of snow in Alberta. I'll never forget New Year's Eve, celebrating with the rest of Red Deer on the frozen Bower Ponds. We drank mulled wine and tried to stay warm near fires built on the frozen ice while the kids skated around us having the time of their lives!

We found it unbearably cold in New York and Washington that January 1994. It was so cold in Washington they shut the city down while we were there: no subway, no shops, no one at work, power cuts (and no Smithsonian!!!!).

I took this photo of Joshy at a viewing window of the Observatory on the 107th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Centre on 17th January 1994. The South Tower was the second tower hit by suicide bombers on September 11th. The day we were there Joshy was very disappointed that "today visibility is 0". However the experience, and this photo, had much greater poignancy for us all after 9/11.

On our first afternoon in Washington we managed to see a few sights before they were closed to the public. I took this photo at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, near the Lincoln Memorial. Much to our disappointment we weren't allowed to get any closer to this iconic monument because of all the ice lying around it.

16 years on and we celebrated Joshy's birthday last Sunday with a family picnic at Telopea Park: a celebratory drink of champagne, a beautiful brunch, and all the littlies happily playing on the play equipment, the mini skate ramp and creating secret play spaces in the shrubbery around the park.